A leader of the House of Representatives on Wednesday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ensure that the ballot design would be fair for party-list contenders in the 2022 national and local elections.

Deputy Speaker Bernadette Herrera said the Comelec should not repeat its mistake of printing the party-lists at the back of the ballot in the previous elections, since several voters were not able to vote for the sector because it was printed at the back.

“There must not be a repeat of the ballot design that was detrimental to the party-lists in the last elections. The party-lists were on the sheet after the local positions, making many voters think they were done voting and had no more vote to mark,” she said.

She said it was tantamount to “disenfranchisement” because “misled or mistaken voters” were denied the chance to choose the party-list they would have voted for.

“The composition of the House today would have been different if that fiasco did not happen. I remind the Comelec to be circumspect this time around,” she said.

Herrera also pushed for creating voting precincts in the jails and vaccinating detainees against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

She said detainees in the city jails, police stations, municipal jails, and provincial jails still have the right to vote for the national elective positions.

“There are millions of Sinovac doses to spare to make sure the detainees get vaccinated. The jails are closed spaces where COVID can spread fast because there is no physical distancing in the jails,” she said.

Herrera also supported the idea that voting precincts be deployed to hospitals, isolation centers, and temporary care facilities. (PNA)